


He's Gone

by TheLoneRebels



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, And cats. lol, Anidala, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, We've got horses!, eventual LEMONS, rexsoka
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2019-11-07 11:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17959439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLoneRebels/pseuds/TheLoneRebels
Summary: After getting sucked into a wormhole, Cody and Rex crash land on an unknown planet called Earth in the year 2050. Cody finds his soulmate in the form of a young horse trainer, while Rex mourns leaving his own mate behind in another galaxy. Can they work with the humans to get home again? Or will Ahsoka find them first?ON HOLD.





	1. Getting Off The Ship

**Hello there!**

**Thank you all soooooo much for checking out my story! If you like it, it would make my day if you let me know. Every kudos, sub, or nice review makes me want to write that much more for you. :D :D :D :D :D**  

 **If you have an idea for a story, check out my profile to find out details on the chance to have a one shot written for you.**  

 **I now have a Facebook page where I post sneak peaks for every new chapter I write. It also has my updating schedule for the those wanting to know what I’m working on next. And if any of you are artists, I'd love if you shared your fan art with me. :) It would make me very happy if you took a minute to give my page a gander and maybe hit the Like button?**

**Just search for 'Thelonerebel's Stories' in your Facebook search bar and you should find me. :D**

**If you like what you're reading, maybe consider buying me a hot chocolate via Ko-Fi? Always nice to feel appreciated, trust me. :P**

**You'll find this one on Ko-Fi as TheLoneRebelsStories.**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Star Wars characters.**

* * *

**There is an explanation of how my calendar works in 'Flame of Hope - Everyone' if you're curious.**

* * *

**He’s Gone**

**Getting Off The Ship:**

_D213/20 BBY, The Outer Rim_

“Abandon ship!” Obi-Wan yelled the command as he struggled to stay on his feet while the decking heaved and rolled beneath him.

The view out the transparisteel windows was nauseating and frightening as the Venator class war ship spun madly in the unforgiving grasp of the wormhole they’d somehow managed to fly right into. Despite the roar of the engines struggling to fly them out of the mess, Obi-Wan could see large durasteel plated sections of the Reckless flying past the windows. Their ship was being torn apart around them and their only chance of survival was to get in something smaller and more likely to weather the space storm.

The clone bridge crew obeyed instantly, jogging from the bridge as best as they could in as orderly a fashion as possible under the circumstances, even as the squealing sirens filled the air, letting the entire ship of thousands know it was time to cut their losses.

Obi-Wan gestured to Cody and Rex who hadn’t budged yet from their place near his side. “That means you two as well. Move it!”

“Yes, Sir!” they replied briskly and in sync, falling in behind him as all three waited for the last of the other bridge officers to get out the door first. Obi-Wan gave up on trying to get his friends to move towards safety before him and hotfooted it down the hallway while being nearly tossed from one side to the other.

He caught himself on the wall yet again just as Anakin appeared around a corner, running down the hall towards them. His tunic was slightly crooked and his hair was sticking straight up in places. He’d been off duty when the Reckless had come out of hyperspace right on the very edge of a worm hole and obviously had been attempting to catch up on some much needed sleep.

“What the kriff is going on?” Anakin yelled over the sound of sirens to Obi-Wan as he about-faced and joined them in their run towards the escape pods. “I was having a rather pleasant dream for once and then all of a sudden I was thrown out of my bunk and now we’re abandoning ship?!”

“Some sort of wormhole hurricane,” Obi-Wan yelled back. “Never seen anything like it, but as you can probably sense, the Reckless is stuck in it and being shredded.”

“Yah, I got that,” Anakin said rather dryly even as he paused, turned, and grabbed Rex before he was thrown into a wall, using the Force to hold them both up. “It feels like we’re spinning in circles while being shaken by a very mad Zillo beast.”

Rex laughed as he grabbed Cody too. “Excellent description, Sir. I’ll be sure to add that one to the report.”

“You do that, Rex,” Anakin said with a hint of a smile. And they all took off once more, taking advantage of smoother running as the ship settled down for a moment.

“Please tell me you’re on your way, Captain,” Fives' voice said inside Rex’s and Cody’s helmets. “I’ve packed the last of us into the final escape pod in this sector of the ship. And the computer is reading that the other sections of pods are rapidly ejecting.”

“We’re almost there,” Rex reassured his second in command.

After only another half minute of running, the little group made it to the hallway of escape pods. The last pod was packed full with clones from the 501st in their white and blue armour. Fives paused in his pacing when he saw the Generals and his brothers running towards him. “Thank the stars, you made it, Sirs. We were getting worried.”

Anakin smiled in at his men, feeling the waves of relief from them to see him and Rex even as he noticed there was no possible way all four of them were going to fit in the pod as well. He exchanged glances with Obi-Wan, both of them thinking the same thing. They would Force push Rex and Cody into the pod and stay behind. They could run like lightning to another section of the ship and hopefully catch another pod.

Rex and Cody had also come to the same conclusion, and being the men they were, it never even occurred to them to take the place of safety before their Generals. They also knew exactly what the Jedi would do in the situation. They exchanged the smallest hint of a nod with their helmeted heads and palmed their blasters, flicking the switch to stun with their thumbs.

As Anakin and Obi-Wan turned around to grab their friends and forcibly shove them in the pod, they found themselves shot instead, not even leaving time for a cry of disbelief.

Fives caught their falling forms by their tunics with a hand each, as his inherited clone reflexes were beyond excellent. Helmeted heads exchanged stares as Rex told Fives to pull the Jedi into the pod and go!

Fives wasn’t pleased about leaving Captain Rex and Commander Cody behind, but he knew how to obey orders from his commanding officer. He nodded once and dragged the unconscious Jedi into the pod, placing them on the feet of his brothers already lining the small space.

Rex smacked the button to close the pod door and hit the next one to eject it from the ship.

Cody and Rex watched the last pod burst out into space through the little window even as Fives’ voice came through over their comms in their buckets. “As our Jedi would say if they weren’t out cold; may the Force be with you, Sirs. Good luck. I promise we’ll come looking for you after you get off that flaming ball of death. You keep your shebs alive until then, you hear?”

Rex held the vibrating wall as his chest tightened with all the emotions that were catching up to him. “We hear, Fives. That goes double for you, too.”

“Understood,” came back the barely audible reply of Fives. And then the comms went to static as the Reckless was pulled even further into the wormhole and the escape pod joined the fleet of little pods valiantly flying away from the space hurricane.

* * *

_Coruscant, Senator Padmè Amidala’s apartment._

Ahsoka was standing quietly in the background as Padmè and senators Organa and Mothma had a boring meeting about some bill or other they wanted to pass. Her new job as a guard for her friend was largely unexciting except when they went on trips or when Anakin found some time to come visit, but at least it was a job. And it came with great food and a comfy place to sleep, which was more than she could say about most of her time spent working as a Jedi in the war.

She suppressed the urge to yawn and talked her shoulders into squaring again while wishing it wouldn’t look bad if she leaned against the wall. Dormè glanced at her from across the room and her lips twitched in amusement. Padmè’s handmaidens had had years more experience with standing still and impersonating statues and they found it funny that they could be stiller than an ex Jedi Padawan. Ahsoka rolled her eyes ever so slightly at the older girl, making her mouth twitch again.

As the voices of the senators droned on, Ahsoka closed her eyes and stretched out her senses into the Force, just for something different to do. She didn’t really expect there to be any danger to the senators; there hadn’t been a single death threat to any of them in a couple of months now.

As expected, she didn’t sense anything dark or foreboding in the immediate vicinity of the skyscraper apartment building. Journeying further, she brushed over the Jedi Temple, a wave of sorrow for her old life and her friends distracting her from how very clouded and dark the Temple was.

Wanting something a little more cheerful to dwell on, Ahsoka reached for her Master across the vast distance of space separating them. If he wasn’t battling a droid army or sleeping, he always welcomed having her mind brush his with a mental hug. They both needed those mental hugs more than they would ever admit to anyone else, just to reaffirm that no matter what the Jedi Council said, they would always be connected to each other. Ahsoka heaved a mental sigh when she brushed up against Anakin’s sleeping mind.

And then she frowned as a sense of danger and a disturbance in what should have been the calm emptiness of space seemed to surround Anakin. What was going on?

She reached for the weaker, but still there, bond she had with Obi-Wan and found him mentally unresponsive as well.

Now really worried, Ahsoka went for her last resort when it came to hopefully getting answers, since her secret mate was ridiculously closemouthed about how bad things might actually be. Despite not being Force sensitive, her bond with Rex was the strongest of the three. Not even she and Anakin could talk as clearly with their minds as she and Rex could. Her soul deep mating with Rex had been just one factor in her decision to leave the Order, but perhaps the biggest one. You would think that fighting side by side with her mate would be the most ideal situation, but Rex had been going just a little too far in his driving need to protect her and Ahsoka was sure he was going to get himself killed in the process. And that just wouldn't do.

Her frown increased as she felt that Rex was even more embroiled in the sense of danger than her Masters were. _“Rex, what in the galaxy is going on?”_ she thought at him fiercely, grateful that he, at least, was awake to hear her. _“Why does it feel like my Masters are both out cold and why does it feel like the area around you is having a temper tantrum of epic proportions?”_

Rex winced as he and Cody ran for the nearest hangar, having already accessed the ship’s computer and seen that all of the escape pods had been launched. They hoped to find a working shuttle or LAAT or even a fighter that they could escape the dying war ship in. _“Nothing to worry about, Soka,”_ Rex lied as he bounced off a wall and skidded around a corner. _“Just another day in the war.”_

 _“So everything’s going to poodoo and you’re about to die,_ ” Ahsoka thought resignedly.

Rex pictured himself grinning. _“That about sums it up, babe._ ”

Ahsoka sent him a picture of her eyes rolling around in her head like loose marbles, eliciting a mental laugh from her mate. _“Do you need me to send help? Or come help?”_

 _“That’s actually a really good idea,”_ Rex admitted as he and Cody all but fell through the door to the hangar. He suppressed the urge to groan as they found what used to be an orderly row of ships and shuttles now little more than a jumble of smashed parts against one wall and then winced some more as the ship changed its tilt and the pile of debris started sliding across the hangar towards the other wall. Anything that came close to the opening in the floor for shuttles to fly through fell out. _“You could send a rescue team to retrieve the escape pods. I’m pretty sure we’re near Seelos.”_

Cody and Rex whirled on the tilted deck and ran back out the door aiming for the next hangar, which was now uphill from them. That one contained the fighters and had an opening in the ceiling for deployment. At least those wouldn’t be falling out of the Reckless in pieces. As they ran, a little silver and blue droid careened down the hallway towards them, beeping frantically about finding his master.

“Artoo!” Rex called, happy to see the droid. “The General’s fine. You might want to come with us, though.”

Artoo beeped out a series of relived sounding binary and then turned around and powered up the hallway beside the clones.

Ahsoka sucked in a breath as she sensed that Rex was hiding something rather important from her. _“Rexxxxxx. Why do I get the impression you’re not in any of those escape pods?”_

Rex sent her a picture of him with an apologetic wince. _“Because I’m not?”_

“ _REX!"_ Ahsoka wailed in his mind.

Rex flinched as he ran up the slanted hallway, calves straining. _“I’m sorry, baby. I don’t know if I’m actually going to make it out of this one, but I sure am trying.”_

“Oh, Rexi,” Ahsoka whispered, shoulders slumping. _“Don’t say that. You know I can’t lose you.”_

Rex imagined giving her a hug and kissing her forehead. _“I know. And I’m doing my best here.”_

“Yes!” Cody whooped as they entered the fighter hanger and found a messy row of Jedi Starfighters and Y-Wings smashed up against a wall. Because of the direction of the hangar and the smaller amount of space to slide around in, the fighters had fared much better in the spinning Jedi Cruiser. Cody smacked the emergency button to open the ceiling hangar doors, smiling in relief when they started to move.

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Rex said out loud to Cody as they ran to the end of the line and clambered up into a yellow painted Y-Wing. Cody took the cockpit and started flipping switches and Rex jumped in the gunner’s seat in the bubble turret. Artoo flew up into the droid’s spot and helped get the fighter going faster than recommended by the manufacturer.

 _“Now we’re getting where?”_ Ahsoka demanded, having overheard the proclamation in his mind.

 _“Now we’re getting out of this mess,_ ” Rex replied happily. _“The Reckless is done for, but Cody, Artoo, and I are flying out now. All that’s left is to get out of this shabla wormhole.”_

_“WHAT?!”_

Rex’s whole body flinched from the volume of Ahsoka’s screech. _“Pretend you didn’t hear that.”_

_“Ohhhhh no, Mate, I am most definitely not! You’re in a wormhole?!”_

_“Unfortunately... Yes,_ ” Rex admitted, sorry he’d mentioned it.

 _“GET OUT OF THERE!_ ” Ahsoka demanded.

 _“We’re trying. Honest, baby,_ ” Rex thought to her as Cody cursed and fought the controls as the space storm flung the Y-Wing in random directions. Pieces of the Reckless were flying dangerously close to them, caught in the same storm. Artoo kept beeping out notes of alarm.

Off to their left, the flaming cruiser suddenly burst into a ball of white light as the hyperdrive fuel exploded. Pieces of the Reckless were flung in thousands of directions. Inevitably, their Y-Wing was struck, sending them spinning even further out of control and one of the engines burst into flames.

Not yet strapped into his seat, Rex was flung into the glass bubble, his helmet smacking into it with skull crushing force and making a spider web of cracks in the transparisteel.

“REX!” Ahsoka cried out loud as her sense of his mind suddenly went blank. She held onto the tenuous connection she had with his essence, barely reassured that he seemed to still be alive, but freaking out nonetheless.

And then, a few seconds later, even that became almost too faint to feel.

Ahsoka feel to her knees as tears streamed from her eyes unheeded. Her chest seized up as her whole body went into shock at what felt like the sudden loss of her mate.

“Rex, Rex, Rex,” she moaned under her breath over and over.

A hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently, finally brought her back to her awareness of the here and now. Ahsoka looked up and gulped in her first real breath of air in over a minute as she took in Padmè’s concerned features.

“What’s wrong with Rex, Ahsoka?” Padmè said gently, from her kneeling position in front of her young friend.

“Gone,” Ahsoka croaked out through her tight throat. “He’s gone.”

Padmè exchanged worried glances with Bail, Mothma, and Dormè at how defeated Ahsoka looked. She gathered the girl into her arms as Ahsoka’s tears fell faster and she started to gulp out wretched sounding sobs.

She let Ahsoka cry until she’d sobbed herself out a few minutes later, rubbing her back soothingly and murmuring nonsense syllables. She’d known that Ahsoka was very fond of Rex, but this seemed a little extreme for a person with such ingrained Jedi training, Anakin’s emotional influence or not. “Ahsoka,” she said softly when it seemed like the girl had settled down enough to talk again. “Can you tell me what happened to Rex?” Unspoken, but also hanging in the air was the question of whether or not Anakin had also been involved in whatever took out his Captain. Padmè waited with baited breath for Ahsoka’s answer.

Ahsoka sat up and swiped at her eyes, slumping back against the wall behind her as she hugged her knees to her chest. She explained what she knew or had pieced together from images from Rex’s mind that he unwittingly showed her. “The Reckless flew into a wormhole near Seelos. They abandoned ship. Rex and Cody stunned Anakin and Obi-Wan to make them take the last places on an escape pod. I can still feel my Masters, so I think the escape pods made it out of the wormhole, but I’m not sure. Rex and Cody were stuck on the Reckless until they found a working Y-Wing. They made it out of the Reckless, but I don’t think they made it out of the wormhole. The Reckless blew up and something hit the fighter. I think Rex and Cody are... gone.” Ahsoka barely whispered the last word, burying her face in her hands once again.

Padmè’s hand was pressed below her throat as she struggled to school her emotions. She was incredibly worried about Anakin now and sympathizing with Ahsoka’s pain wasn't helping. She squeezed Ahsoka’s knee with her other hand. Not quite wanting to believe it, Padme needed some sort of confirmation of what Ahsoka had just said. She hadn’t seen her husband for a couple of months and she would be heartbroken to lose him now; especially considering that she was carrying his child and he didn’t know it yet. “Did you see this in a vision? Is this the future or happening now?”

Ahsoka shook her head and then nodded, sort of all at once in a confused motion. Realizing that made little sense, she said, “Now. It’s happening now. I felt it and saw it.” Drawing strength from somewhere, Ahsoka suddenly stood. “Come on. We have to go rescue my Masters and the clones.” Her eyes took on a steely resolve as she stared at Padmè, knowing perfectly well how much Anakin meant to her and that the older woman was carrying her Master’s child. “We don’t need to lose any one else.”

Padmè nodded firmly, rising as well. “No, we don’t.”

* * *

“Rex! Rex!” Cody called after he got the fighter back under some semblance of control, having heard him cry out and then go silent. The lack of answer over his helmet comm worried him greatly, but he didn’t have time to check on his brother just yet. Even as he watched in disbelief, the fighter was dragged deeper into the wormhole, the somehow swirling black space around him nauseating to look at even through his visor.

“Rex is unconscious,” Artoo sent him over the fighter’s computer.

“Great,” Cody mumbled, worried.

And then the air pressure in the cockpit went insane, making it feel as though Cody was being crushed from the inside out. His brain screamed as his bones whimpered. And then there was nothing as his eyes closed involuntarily and he blacked out.

* * *

Cody gasped as consciousness returned. He looked around him frantically for a moment and saw he was still in the edges of the wormhole, but it seemed to be swirling him out now instead of pulling him in. Cody grabbed the controls again and pushed buttons, trying to get the fighter running again. He breathed a sigh of relief as the remaining engine sputtered to life.

“Rex?” he tried again, glancing over his shoulder, but he couldn’t see his brother in the gun turret. The bubble was severely cracked but still intact, which meant that Rex had to be in there somewhere; probably on the floor. The bad news was that with the cracked bubble, Rex (if he was still alive) was probably relying on his helmet’s limited supply of air right now. Rex didn’t have long before he’d become starved for oxygen.

Setting his jaw in determination, Cody forced the fighter to fly in as straight a line as possible towards the peaceful looking opening of the wormhole. The fighter bucked and fought him every kilometre he gained, but Cody was winning the argument.

And then he was spit out into normal space, and Cody almost cheered. Spotting a hospitable looking blue and green planet not too far away, Cody did cheer. If he could land them on that planet within the next minute or so, Rex still had a chance of surviving without brain damage.

Cody flew the poor sputtering Y-Wing as fast as he could make it go. “Artoo, whatever you can do to get this poor bucket of bolts going faster, do it,” Cody said, thanking the Force that they had been lucky enough to have an astromech along to help boost things along. And the fact that the General’s favourite droid wasn’t a pile of flaming bits right now was definitely a good thing. If they ever got home, Cody looked forward to seeing Skywalker’s reaction to being reunited with a droid he considered to be part his family and was sure to be believed permanently lost by now.

Artoo sent a, “Working on it.” A couple of seconds later, the ship picked up speed even as it whined alarmingly and warning lights flashed all over the consul.

Cody ignored them as he flew past a... weird metal thing that might be a satellite and entered the atmosphere of the planet. More systems crashed as they plummeted in a vaguely controlled fashion towards the earth below.

The clouds parted and Cody was now looking at a green mountainous region beside a long ocean coast line. The ground approached much too quickly as the fighter continued to essentially fall from the sky, the last engine sputtering badly. “Kay, Artoo, whatever you can do to help me out here, that would be shabla fantastic,” Cody muttered, tension radiating through him as he held the fighter’s nose up out of sheer determination.

“Working on it,” the droid said again. Cody could practically read the implied eye roll in the aurebesh writing on the screen.

“Thanks,” Cody said with real feeling as the flight of the Y-Wing smoothed out and Cody felt like he had something resembling control again.

Which was a good thing, because they were almost on top of the mountain range now. Cody flew around it, looking for a good place to land. Spotting a cleared pasture, he aimed for that and flicked the button to activate the landing gear.

Nothing happened.

“Artoo... Landing gear?”

“Unresponsive,” came back the reply a few seconds later.

Cody grunted as he flew over the tops of pointed green trees, startling some sort of four-legged animals into flight below him. Suddenly spotting a large rectangle of what looked like sand with strange obstacles scattered throughout, Cody aimed for that instead. Sand would make a much better crash landing than the grass he’d originally been aiming for.

The bottom of the fighter skimmed over the fenced rectangle of sand and hit the white stuff with too much momentum for Cody’s liking, but he went with it, having no other choice.

White particles flew up into the air, and the strange colourful obstacles flew too, as the Y-Wing skidded a deep groove into the sand and finally came to a stop near the far fence line.

Cody shuddered out a sigh of relief, slumping in his chair for a moment before he jolted himself back into action.

Releasing his safety straps, he popped the cockpit hatch and clambered back to the gun turret. As he suspected, Rex was crumpled up on the floor of the space, more or less wrapped around the base of the chair.

Grimacing in sympathy at the awkward position, Cody smacked the button to open the bubble. It sprang back with a groan and promptly fell apart. Gaping at how close Rex had come to being spaced, he thanked the Force again and climbed down onto the seat of the chair. Kneeling on it so as not to step on his brother, he reached down and took off Rex’s helmet. There was a fair amount of blood coating the side of his head and seeping into the neck of his black bodysuit, but he was visibly breathing. Cody closed his eyes in relief for a moment before shaking his head. “You’re getting just as reckless and stupid as your general, vod. Would it have been that much of a bother to actually use your safety harness?”

“Yes,” Rex mumbled as he cracked an eye open and turned his head slightly to look up at his brother. Putting a hand to his pounding head, he struggled to a sitting position in the tight space on the floor. Squinting up at the blue sky with an occasional fluffy cloud floating past a bright sun, he quirked a brow. “Where are we?”

Cody laughed once as he climbed onto the top of the fighter and helped Rex out. “I have no idea, vod.”

* * *

_Mando’a words:_

_Shabla – screwed up, f**ked up, f**king. (depends on context)_  
_Vod – sibling (in this case; brother)_


	2. Meeting a Soulmate

**Meeting a Soulmate:**

_British Columbia Coastal Mountains, May 18, 2050_

_ When your tears are spent on your last pretense _  
_ And your tired eyes refuse to close and sleep in your defense _  
_ When it's in your spine like you've walked for miles _  
_ And the only thing you want is just to be still for a while _

_When you're overwhelmed and you've lost your breath_  
_And the space between the things you know is blurry nonetheless_  
_When you try to speak but you make no sound_  
_And the words you want are out of reach but they've never been so loud_  
  
With no one around to hear her but the barn cats, Tezza Stranik made a solid effort at singing along with the radio as it played a classic Marianas Trench song from some forty years ago. (The Vancouver based band had become a worldwide sensation after they released their sixth studio album and were now being compared to Queen with how their songs were enduring over time.) She'd never win a talent show with her soprano voice, but she liked to think she got all the notes right at least. 

_ And if your heart wears thin I will hold you up _  
_ And I will hide you when it gets too much _  
_ I'll be right beside you _  
_Nobody will break you._

Tezza smiled mistily as she sang the chorus of 'Beside You' as loud as she could through a constricted throat inspired by the heartwrenching voice of Josh Ramsay, swaying to the haunting melody a little as she cleaned the last stall of the morning. The last few poo balls were tossed in the antigrav cart as she found them while smoothing out the thick pile of fluffed out wood pellets into a nice flat bed for Clipper when she brought him back in later.

The radio switched to commercials as she pushed the full wheelbarrow down the aisle of twenty large boxstalls that held the pride and joy of Never Too High Stables; a breeding and training farm for Cleveland Bay/ Warmblood crosses with show jumping in mind.

Tezza had been left in charge of taking care of the horses that hadn’t gone to compete in Langley, which included seven adult horses that needed daily turnout, the pasture of broodmares and their foals, and the pasture of one, two, and three year olds.  

With the stalls all done, she aimed for the shed containing new bags of bedding and grabbed two for the stalls that were low on pellets before going back into the barn. The all inclusive radio station wasn’t playing a song she particularly liked when she returned, so she wasn’t paying much attention to it as she spread the wood pellets into the stalls that needed them. But the following announcement made in the middle of the song by a rather excited DJ definitely made her stop and listen:

_“Breaking news! A wormhole just appeared in space above Earth! Yes. I said wormhole. It’s not much further away from Earth than the moon is and is already creating havoc with the satellites on our side of the planet, so don’t be alarmed if you lose your internet service. Fortunately, the International Space Station was in orbit away from the spatial anomaly when it appeared, so it hasn’t been affected. Authorities say there’s no need to be alarmed yet, so you should continue on with your life as usual.”_

Tezza snorted at that; as if humans weren’t going to go out of their minds with panic. The meteorite scare of ’39 was proof enough of that. Fortunately, she was out in the middle of nowhere (the nearest town a good five minute flight away), so she didn’t have to worry about the inevitable mad shopping and screaming that was undoubtedly taking over places like Vancouver already.

_“You may be thinking this is a hoax, but it’s the honest truth, folks. I saw a video taken by the Space Station just minutes ago and this is the real deal. NASA is posting the video on various social medias, so you should be able to see it for yourself any second now. Authorities want me to remind you again that there is no need to panic. The anomaly is far enough away from Earth that it won’t affect us in any drastic fashion, so stay calm out there, people, and try to remember how to be the civilized race we claim to be. I’ll keep you posted on any updates that may arise, so stay tuned to 107.5, You Name It, We Play It FM.”_

Tezza shook her head in amused disbelief as she went on with her chores and the song she didn’t like resumed playing. The rest of the world could basically fall apart and she’d still be doing the exact same thing; because someone had to take care of the horses, no matter what was happening elsewhere.

After putting hay in the stalls for the horses’ dinner when she brought them in at 4pm, Tezza swept the floors and then went outside to get a horse to tack up. With a couple hours yet until it was time to feed lunch, she had time to go for a hack around the trails that bordered the property, and the horses always liked when they got a break from arena work.

* * *

The command room of NASA Headquarters was in a state of barely organized chaos as more information came in from the Space Station, various satellites, and the data probe that had been sent to investigate the wormhole.

The excitement and stress in the room increased tenfold when the wormhole started to spit out what looked like pieces of metal debris. And then one of the pieces of debris turned out to be an actual spaceship and it flew right towards Earth.

The room went nuts.

“Sir, its flying right towards us!”

“Someone track its course!”

“Where’d it go?!”

“Did it survive the atmospheric burn?!”

“Come on, people. Tell me where it landed!”

“British Columbia, Sir. About two hundred kilometres north of Vancouver.”

“Wilderness then?”

“Essentially, yes. There’s only a few farms up there.”

“Good. That’s good. No need to panic people any more than they already are. Let’s try and keep this under wraps, people. Someone get a containment team up there, ASAP!”

“Already sent, Sir.”

“Good. You’re in charge of that mess, Gibson. Everyone else, let’s get a move on gathering up all that debris for examination. It looks like we’ve finally got an answer to the age old question of whether or not we’re alone in the universe.”

* * *

Tezza raised her face to the sun as it dappled through the trees, enjoying the spring sunshine after four straight days of showers.

Under her, Guessi walked enthusiastically, ears pricked as the seventeen hand bay gelding checked out the forest around them, occasionally snorting at a bird or squirrel is they walked past. Tezza laughed as the four year old horse spotted a particularly suspicious looking tree stump and gave it a good eyeball as he sidled past it. She gave him a reassuring pat on the neck. “It’s just a stump, buddy. Just like a hundred other stumps that you’ve seen.”

He flicked an ear back at the sound of her voice and relaxed again into a smooth walk.

The first thing that made her realize that something was wrong was the sound of galloping horses coming from the pasture to the right.

Tezza immediately tensed and stopped Guessi, trying to see through the trees. Guessi tensed under her, prancing on his toes as he noticed that other horses were excited about something. He whirled around, tracking the running herd, and snorting like a raptor.

Tezza held him place, not letting him run back down the path like he was inclined to do.

And then the sound of a whining engine registered, with some background crackles that didn’t sound good at all.

Peering up through the tops of the trees, Tezza could just make out a flash of yellow and what might be flames go streaking by, over the young horse pasture.

“Oh, shit,” she muttered as she let Guessi power trot back down the path towards the barn. Someone was crashing their plane and she had a bad feeling they were doing it on the stable’s property. Please, just don’t let it be in one of the pastures, she thought, because the horses were obviously freaked out enough as is.

Ten seconds later, Tezza winced as the clear sound of something hitting the ground hard echoed through the trees.

Yep, they crashed all right.

After what felt like too long, but unwilling to let Guessi run home (because that set a bad precedent that was dangerous to deal with), they finally emerged from the forest and Tezza got her first clear view of the plane that had crashed.

It was sitting at the end of the sand ring, smoking, a trail of ruined jumps and a gouge in the expensive sand footing behind it.  In the pasture that abutted the ring, a group of twenty young horses were staring at the wreckage with big eyes, curious ears, snorting nostrils, and raised tails.

Guessi wasn’t much better, prancing forward only at her encouragement.

And then a man in white and yellowish orange streaked... armour? emerged from the cockpit of what she realized was something more like a fighter plane than a personal vehicle. She’d never seen anything like it, so Tezza figured it must be from one of the overseas air forces.

The man climbed over the top of his fighter and popped another cockpit bubble, soon emerging with another man in white and blue armour. That one looked rather wobbly on his feet, wasn’t wearing the full helmet the other one was, and was definitely bleeding from a head wound.

By this point, Tezza and Guessi had made it to the fenceline of the jumping ring.  “Hey!” she called. “Just give me a second and I can help you!”

Cody and Rex’s heads turned towards the female voice. Rex squinted, trying to get the blurry image that wobbled around from afar to focus as he tried to make sense of the words. “What did she say?” he asked his brother, sitting on the edge of the opening into the gunner’s seat.

Cody shook his head as he studied the female via the zoom function in his helmet. She was on one of the handsome four legged creatures, wearing a black helmet that covered the top of her head. Her face was pretty in a soft way, with big eyes he couldn’t quite make the colour of yet, a cute little nose, bow shaped lips, and a medium skin tone that was neither light nor dark, but somewhere approaching tan, like his.  “Don’t know, Rex. Never heard that language before. But I have to assume it’s an offer of help or maybe a ‘what the kriff are you doing, crashing your fighter into my land?’“

Rex chuckled and then winced, putting a hand up to hold his pounding head together.

Cody glanced at Artoo, who was watching them with his version of concern, making soft trilling sounds. (He always found it funny that a droid with no face could be so expressive.) “Hey, you ever hear that language before?”

Artoo shook his dome, beeping out a, “Nope.”

“Great.” Cody waved at the female, acknowledging that they heard her, but not calling anything back, because it was obvious they’d never understand each other anyway. Gripping Rex’s helmet that he was still holding, he jumped down to the ground. “Come on, vod, Artoo. No point staying up there. This fighter isn’t flying again anytime soon.”

Rex groaned exaggeratedly but slid over to the edge of the Y-Wing as Artoo flew up and out of his spot.

Tezza was in the process of trotting Guessi around the edge of the ring so she could get to the gate of the arena when he startled, leaping forward. She settled him back down and looked back at the ship, just catching sight of a... robot? flying out of the ship and landing on the ground beside the men.

Whoa. That was new tech she hadn’t seen before. Robots were quite common now, doing housework etc., but this was a new design that seemed kind of chunky, but she assumed it had some purpose.

Tezza rode through the gate, and then jumped off of Guessi, pulling his reins over his head as she led him, his feet reluctantly moving forward. (He wasn’t a fan of the armour covered men or the rolling robot, if his snorts were anything to go by.) “Chillax,” she muttered to the horse. “They’re not going to eat you.”

She met the little group of strangers about halfway between the gate and the still smoking ship. One man was helping the injured one walk, their arms slung over each other’s shoulders, and a second helmet tucked under his arm that matched the other guy’s armour. (She’d never seen armour like theirs either, for that matter. They were basically covered in it from head to toe with only strips of black cloth showing through between the plating.)

“Hi,” She said with a friendly smile, looking from one man to the other before focusing on the unhelmeted one who had a very military hair cut with only a bit of white blond fuzz covering the top of his head. “Come with me to the barn and we can get you cleaned up,” she said, pointing towards the building in question.

Rex shook his head at the woman. “I have no idea what you just said, but a place to sit would sure be nice.”

“Oh dear,” Tezza said after she listened to the words that sounded like no language she’d ever heard. “That’s going to be a problem.”

So she settled on exaggerated hand gestures, pointing towards the barn and then the injured one’s head.

Fortunately, the men nodded, at least seeming to get it.

So Tezza turned and led the way to the barn, walking slowly so they could keep up with her and Guessi. (Who was still giving them a suspicious eye, but he wasn’t trying to run away from them anymore, so that was an improvement.)

Cody, Rex, and Artoo followed the woman into a stable that wasn’t that much different from any other animal stable that they’d seen on countless worlds across the galaxy. The only real difference was that these animals were actually quite beautiful instead of butt ugly like most riding animals, and the stable itself was kept meticulously clean. She pointed them to an open door that turned out to be a refresher room, toilets and sinks being more or less recognizable no matter what precise shape they came in.

“You’ll find first aid supplies in the cabinet under the sink,” Tezza said automatically before remembering they wouldn’t get any of it. Sighing, she simply gestured at the space and waited a second to make sure they got the idea, nodding when the injured one settled himself on the closed lid of the toilet. “I’ll be right back,” she said just before leading Guessi to the crossties to untack him as fast as possible.

Cody looked around the small refresher for a moment, studying the space. Beige painted walls, duracrete floor, white porcelain sink and loo. Cupboards. Pretty standard, all things considered. He put Rex’s helmet on the counter beside the sink and then added his own, rubbing a quick hand over his short hair.

Then he dug into his utility belt and held up a couple of stim shots for Rex to see. “You want a pain killer and an anti nausea?”

“Please,” Rex groaned. “Shabla, this sucks,” he muttered, not quite willing to admit just how much his head hurt. He’d been hurt much worse, of course, but not being able to focus properly was the most annoying injury. He winced as Cody stabbed him in the neck with the stims, and then relaxed as they immediately kicked in, helping his situation drastically. (There was one thing he could never complain about in regards to the Republic army; they knew how to keep their soldiers going.)

Cody found a roll of soft white towels and tore a couple off. Then he took a second to figure out how the faucet on the sink worked, smiling when it turned on as his hand moved under it. Efficient. He liked that. Pulling off his gloves so they didn’t get wet, Cody ran the towels under the water and then turned back to Rex. “Kay, vod, let’s see what’s under all that blood you’re leaking.”

Rex smirked at his brother. “Hopefully more than just air.”

Cody grinned as he started dabbing at the blood slowly dripping down the side of Rex’s head. “You’re definitely feeling better if you can make a joke.”

* * *

Tezza switched Guessi’s bridle for a halter, tying him up in the tack up stall, and then undid his girth and pulled his saddle and breastplate off in one minute flat. She hung the tack up on holders on the wall, undid her helmet and hung that up too, and then rushed back to the bathroom.

She found the robot hovering just outside the doorway, watching her. It beeped at her in a curious tone, giving her the impression it was smarter than she thought. She gave the silver and blue painted robot an equally curious look in return as she walked past it and into the bathroom, making the space seem even smaller. (The two large men took up most of it.)

“How’s it going in here?” she said conversationally, just because.

The men looked at her with identical smiles, making her blink in surprise as she saw the second man’s face for the first time.

They were twins! Or at the very least brothers of a similar age. Except for the difference in hair colour (the other had dark brown hair cut military short as well), and a wicked scar traversing around the darker one's left eye, they looked nearly identical. Tan skin over handsome bone structure and lovely golden brown eyes that smiled along with their mouths.

“Well, aren’t you two a couple of tall glasses of water on a hot day,” she murmured, smiling back, confident that they didn’t understand a word she was saying. (She’d never have had the guts to say it otherwise.) After looking back and forth between the men again, seeing that the blood was now cleaned up from the blond one’s head and the wound had stopped bleeding, she found herself focusing on the brunette, eyes drawn to him.

In his armour, he looked massive, and he loomed over her without being intimidating, which she found very exhilarating. The top of her head only came up to his collarbone, which she thought was perfect and would make for a very comfortable hug, so she could rest her cheek on his pec. (She had no doubt he had strong pecs under that armour; he exuded strength and virility.)

Her lips parted on a breath as a mental image of her being held in his arms flooded her mind, sending her core into a tingle of awareness. Holy smokes, that was new. Tezza had never met a man that did that to her that wasn’t a fantasy from a movie or something like that.  

Now blushing lightly, Tezza looked up at his eyes again and found that he was checking her out every bit as much as she was checking him out. Holy fire alarm, Batman, someone throw some water on her, because she was getting hotter by the moment.

* * *

Cody focused on the woman, getting his first good look at her now that she wasn’t wearing a helmet and he wasn’t as worried about Rex. As he’d thought before, she had a young looking round face that was softly feminine. And now he could see that she had a great deal of dark gold hair twisted into a sloppy bun at the back of her neck, and captivating blue eyes with gold flecks around the edges, making them nearly hazel. Her upper body was covered in a loose fitting, short sleeved, royal blue t-shirt, exposing soft looking arms that had a definition of muscle under the skin. The shirt gave him a good idea of the size of her round breasts, despite the looseness, making him think they were just right to fit in his hands. Her lower body was adorned in some sort of tight fitting faded blue material that hugged her shapely ass and thighs in a mouth-watering fashion, and she was wearing tight black boots that came up to the knee, giving him a fairly good idea about the size of her small feet and her calves, as well.

Cody found her utterly captivating and he wanted to pick her up and kiss her, and then see if she was as snugly as she looked, wishing he could wrap his hard body around her soft one.

Cody gave himself a mental smack, wondering where such thoughts had come from. In all of his thirteen years, he’d never been more than vaguely interested in females, certain that the Kaminoans had genetically engineered him and his brothers so that the urge to mate like most beings experienced was essentially missing.

There were exceptions, of course; Rex being one of them. But Rex was already so far beyond his original conditioning, that Cody wasn’t surprised at all that he’d learned to love the little togrutan Commander.

Cody knew his own conditioning was getting sketchier by the year as the war dragged on and he spent more and more time with the impulsive and emotional Generals, but he never would have guessed that he’d fall for a woman like this.

His eyes met hers and they shared some sort of endless magical acknowledgement of their awareness of each other before she flushed darker and looked down at the floor, mumbling more words he didn’t know. Cody was determined to fix that as fast as possible, since he had a gift for languages, like many of his brothers.

* * *

Rex leaned back against the tank of the toilet, arms crossing over his chest as a grin grew on his face. Watching Cody finally meet a female that caught his attention was very sweet indeed. Rex hadn’t liked being the only brother who had a secret girlfriend. Now he saw that might be changing in a hurry, if the look the two were exchanging was anything to go by.

Rex’s grin faded as he thought of Ahsoka and realized that he might never see her again, might never feel her gentle hands on his skin again, and might never have her thoughts filling his mind again.

 _“Ahsoka? Babe? Can you hear me?”_ he thought as loudly as he could.

The lack of response didn’t surprise him, but it saddened him further. The wormhole must have sent them VERY far away if she couldn’t hear him, because it was a rare occasion indeed that they were far enough apart that she couldn’t think whatever occurred to her at him, keeping him entertained more often than not.

What were the odds of then getting back to their own time and place?

Probably very slim.

Even if they did get their Y-Wing working again, there was no guarentee the wormhole would still be there when they did. And what if it was and they flew into it only to be spit out somewhere else entirely? Or what if it was gone and they tried to fly home and ended up starving to death because home was too far away and they ran out of fuel before they got there?

Shabla hell, he was making himself depressed.

Rex shook it off with determination, focusing on the other two again, a smile returning to his mouth, because they were still staring at each other in fascinated wonder.

He glanced over at Artoo, nodding his head at the couple with a smirk. Artoo chirped out a soft laugh, in complete understanding of what they were witnessing. “Master Kenobi is not going to be impressed,” he beeped merrily, clearly looking forward to witnessing such a thing.

Rex laughed.

Cody and the young woman never even noticed.

* * *

**A/N: Marianas Trench is my favourite band and I highly recommend checking them out. They're amazing singers with wonderful harmonies and inventive music. They have some really fun music videos too, if you look at some of their older ones.**

**The Cleveland Bay breed of horse is on the endangered breeds list and is a highly underrated breed of beautiful horse that originates from England and are still used to pull the Queen's carriage.**


	3. Communicating the Necessities

**A/N: PAC = Personal Air Craft, VIS = Vehicle Identification Signal, HUD = Head's Up Display**

* * *

**Communicating the Necessities:**

_Federal Department of Air Traffic Control, Canadian West Coast Office._

"Hey, Boss! We've got a couple of pushy NASA transports wanting to cross into B.C.!" a tech yelled across the massive room filled with busy workers, floating computer screens, and roughly a hundred cups of coffee in various stages of warmth and expiration.

The man in question grunted as he frowned at his computer screen, fighting with the headache also known as digital paperwork. "Did they say what for!?" he yelled back with only a little less volume as the room quieted suddenly.

"They say that they tracked a piece of satellite debris falling into our Coastal Mountain area and wish to retrieve it."

Boss frowned harder. "I highly doubt that, but possible, I suppose. Did they give coordinates?"

The tech rattled off a set of coordinates that caught the attention of another tech.

"Hey! I just sent a patrol unit that way! I tracked a PAC with no Canadian VIS landing in that area. I figured it was another American poacher after our game."

Boss scowled. "Something tells me it's not a hunter if NASA wants it. I'm calling the Air Force. They can deal with this. In the meantime, stall the pushy NASA geeks as long as you can and call that patrol unit and tell them something fishy's going on. Tell them to use their discretion, but they might want to hang back for now."

"Yes, Boss."

* * *

_Never Too High Stables_

Tezza was utterly captivated by the soldier's golden brown eyes. It was like the entire universe lived in their depths and he could see straight into her soul. She couldn't look away. Her entire focus was on them. The rest of the world faded away and it was just her and the handsome, scarred soldier standing in a blank space in some alternate reality.

It was thrilling.

And terrifying.

In all of her twenty-three years she'd never felt like this before. Not even close. She felt like she was in a movie; like the heroine falling for the badass, scarred and visibly weary, but still oh so handsome war hero.

The thought was enough to jolt her out of her stunned state.

Tezza blinked and looked down at the floor as she took stock of her racing heart and suddenly sweaty state. And ignoring the fact that he didn't understand English, she mumbled, "I'm sorry, that was rude. I don't know where my head went." As an escape, she knelt and dug out the first aid kit from under the sink and put it on the counter beside their strangely painted helmets; helmets that looked like they'd gone through a war or ten judging by the scoring, scratches, dents, and what looked a lot like kill counts on the blue and white one.

Opening the kit, she pulled out a small tube of NewSkin cream and a bandaid big enough to cover the gash on the sitting soldier's temple that would protect the wound until the cream finished healing it within the next two hours or so. Then she looked at the one in white and dark yellow and was about to say 'here, this is for your brother,' when the bemused look on his face recalled the lack of communication available. Sighing, she put the items back down and turned on the tap to wash her hands of horse dirt before she touched the injury.

Then she sidled past the Hottest-Male-She'd-Ever-Seen's big body in the miniscule space, holding her breath the whole time. "I'll just… take care of this, shall I?" she said for the sake of filling in the somewhat awkward silence. Meeting the clearly dyed (brown eyebrows) blond's eyes, she smiled when he gave a little nod of approval for her to doctor him.

* * *

Cody watched the girl take care of his brother with delicate care, putting a cream on his wound and then covering it with a bandage. And the whole time, Rex was talking to him with his eyes, flicking towards the girl with a knowing smirk dancing in them. Cody could practically hear him saying, 'Look, look! You found yourself a GIRL!'

Cody scowled back, crossing his arms over his chest and shook his head minutely to say, 'Don't read too much into it, vod.'

Rex just grinned back and looked extra smug, the bastard.

"Just cause you're hurt doesn't mean I won't wipe the floor with you if you don't remove that look off your face, vod," Cody growled out loud, giving up on getting his point across with nonverbal glaring.

Rex barked out a laugh. "Oh, yeah. That'll make a good impression with your new girlfriend, there."

"She's not my…!"

"She's watching you," Rex cut him off. "And standing right there."

Cody snapped his jaw shut with a clack of teeth and turned his focus back on the girl, an unwitting, bashful smile spreading across his face as he took in her amused raised eyebrow. He shrugged a little and said, "My brothers were unfortunately genetically engineered to be a pain in my shebs." (Mostly for Rex's benefit, since he knew the girl didn't understand Basic or Mando'a.)

Rex snorted, cackling under his breath. "I'm telling everyone you said that when we get back."

"Please do."

And then Cody got lost in her brilliant blue and gold eyes again. Force, they were pretty.

"Ya know, you could try introductions. That doesn't need a language to get your point across."

Cody almost jumped when Rex said that right in his ear, not even noticing that his brother had stood up and crowded right into his space. Cody felt a little lost for the first time in his life, since he should have figured that out on his own. And he definitely should have sensed Rex moving. What was wrong with him? "Right. Good idea."

* * *

Tezza turned around after she finished patching up Blondie and immediately encountered Hottie's ferocious scowl. But it wasn't for her, apparently, since he appeared to be having a silent confab with his widely smiling twin. It made her think that twin telepathy really was a thing. She wished she could read their minds, because she was dying of curiosity to know what was going on in their heads.

And then they started bickering out loud, and even though she didn't understand the words, the tone was apparent enough to make her smile. She had a pretty good idea that Blondie was teasing Hottie about their mutual gawking session.

Hottie looked at her again, smiling in a way that made her insides turn to butterfly filled jello, but kept up the banter with his twin for a bit. Tezza was in the process of wondering what Hottie's velvety deep voice would sound like in the midst of an intimate encounter when he cleared his throat pointedly, catching her external focus again.

Tezza fought back a blush at her naughty thoughts as she tilted her head slightly when he put his hand on his chest and very clearly said, "Cody," while looking at her hopefully. Then he touched his brother's shoulder and said, "Rex."

Cody could practically feel her vibrating with excitement when he briefly touched her shoulder ever so lightly and waited in patient silence for her to contribute to the round of names.

He didn't have to wait long.

The short and pleasingly curved girl beamed brilliantly at him, transforming her features from very pretty to simply stunning, and said, "Tezza. My name is Tezza. And you're Cody." She glanced to his right and continued with, "And he's Rex."

Cody felt himself returning her wide smile. "Tezza," he repeated, just to double check. It was a pretty name, just like her. He liked it, even as the dutiful part of him whispered that it shouldn't matter one way or the other.

She nodded quickly in affirmation while saying, "Yes."

Cody quickly grasped onto something that should be easy to interpret. He repeated her motion and said, "Yes?"

Tezza blinked at the question mark tone at the end of his yes, taking a couple of seconds to realize that he was asking if yes meant yes. Was he trying to learn English? Because if that was the case, she was more than willing to help him. In whatever way he wanted.

She nodded again and very clearly said, "Yes." Then she shook her head and said, "No." Nodded. "Yes." Shook. "No."

Cody grunted in approval that she'd caught on quickly. It looked like she might be just as smart as she was pretty. And that made something inside him take even that much more notice of her. That something had paws and prowled the night and growled possessively as it stalked inside him like a predator as it circled its intended mate with clear intent. Cody banished the disturbing mental image as he repeated her words, feeling out the unfamiliar sounds and committing them to memory.

Rex was practically falling over himself in the effort not to burst into laughter. Stars, they were so funny, staring at the other like a simple bit of clever translation was the hottest thing ever. "Great, Cody, you've established a real basis for communication, there," he teased. "I can just see you two out on your first date now; being all, yes, no, yes, no."

Cody swiveled his head and glared at his brother. "Will you give it up already? I'm not here to go on dates. We have to work with the people of this planet if there's even a chance of our ever getting home. Or don't you want to see your not so secret girlfriend again?"

Rex gulped and sobered quickly, an image of Ahsoka's very worried beautiful sky blue eyes flashing into his mind. "Sorry. And you know I do. Ahsoka's my everything, and you know it."

"I do know it." Cody put a comforting hand on Rex's shoulder as he saw the utter misery hidden in the depths of his eyes and he realized that Rex had just been trying to distract himself from the reality of their situation. "And I vow that I'm going to do whatever is necessary to return you to her."

Rex grabbed Cody's shoulder in return and smiled wanly. "I know you will. That's why you're the Commander; you have never thought of yourself first. But maybe, this time, you could perhaps spare a moment or two and just appreciate the gift the Force has put in front of you."

Cody flicked his eyes to the girl who was once again watching them with patient curiosity before sighing heavily as he turned his gaze back to Rex's. "We'll see."

Rex's face split into a real smile again. "I'm calling that a yes."

Cody just rolled his eyes and let go of his brother, returning his focus to the girl and giving her an apologetic smile. He wished she knew Basic so he could tell her how sorry he was for Rex's uncouth interruptions.

Tezza basically got the idea anyway. She could tell that the brothers were teasing, but also worried. Who wouldn't be after crashing their strange PAC (or was it a military aircraft?) in a place where they didn't know the language?

Deciding that they'd been smushed into the small space that was never meant for three long enough, Tezza waved her hand towards the door and said, "Come on." And then she walked out, past the curious robot.

Cody and Rex got the idea, grabbing up their helmets and following the girl as she walked down the wide hallway of the tidy barn. Some sort of music played quietly in the background and a couple of tooka-like creatures, one a sleek black and white, and the other a fluffy bright orange, wound around their feet with curious trills.

"Friendly critters," Rex mumbled as he shuffled his step to avoid stepping on the black one.

Tezza paused and looked over her shoulder, smiling at the sight of the curious cats greeting the soldiers who had a robot following them like a faithful dog. She knelt down and held out her hands until the cats walked under them to stroke their backs. "Domino," she said to the men, indicating the black and white male, and then, "Tangy," she added, smiling at the orange female cat.

The men copied her gesture and words, smiling as they petted the cats for a few seconds. She beamed at them, pleased as could be that they got on well with animals, because it was rather important to her that at least Cody did. (It was nice to know his name before she got in the habit of calling him Hottie in her mind. Wouldn't that be embarrassing if she said it out loud once he knew what the word meant?)

She stood again and continued to where she'd left Guessi cross tied in the tackup stall, the armoured men following her. She rubbed her horse's face, following the white stripe that ran the length of his head from between the eyes to the top of his muzzle. Guessi nuzzled into her hand as she looked at the men. "Guessi. This is Guessi."

Cody admired the big brown animal that had a shiny coat of short fur and black hair running down its neck and in a tail at the back end. "Handsome beast," he commented to Rex.

Rex nodded. "Sure beats some of the butt ugly riding animals we've been saddled with."

As Tezza picked up a rubber curry to scrub off the already dry sweat marks from the saddle and girth, she used it as a pointer for the men, figuring their language lesson could continue. She pointed at herself and said, "Human," then pointed at each of the men and repeated it. Then she pointed at Guessi and said, "Horse." Then she pointed at the felines that were now circling the robot with cautious curiosity. "Cat." Then she got to work brushing her horse, while keeping an eye on the men to see if they were as smart as they looked.

Cody followed her pointing and words. It only took him a couple seconds to figure it out. He pressed his hand to his chestplate and grinned. "Cody human." Pointed at Rex. "Rex human." Pointed at the girl grooming her animal. "Tezza human. Guessi horse. Domino cat. Tangy cat."

Tezza gave him a brilliant smile that practically made his head swim. "Yes."

Cody gave Rex a smug smirk, feeling like he'd just passed the hardest training test at Kamino. "Did you get that, vod?"

Rex snorted, rolling his eyes. "Of course. What do you take me for? A just hatched shiny?"

Cody returned his snort. Then he called for Artoo to roll a little closer, making the horse blow out a loud huff via its nostrils and bug its eyes out slightly.

"Easy, stupid," Tezza said reassuringly and pushed him back as he shifted towards her with his big hooves. "You've seen the robot before."

Cody touched the astromech's dome and clearly said, "Artoo," and then looked at the girl expectantly.

"Artoo," Tezza repeated, getting a whistle and a beep from the droid that she took for a hello. (Which made Guessi snort again, backing as far away from the robot as he could within the confines of his ties.) Shaking her head at her chicken of a horse, Tezza then looked at Cody and Artoo. "Artoo robot."

"Robot," Cody repeated, nodding to himself.

He was just about to start pointing at specific things to learn more words when Artoo swiveled his dome sudenly and beeped out, "There are two more organics coming this way, and they appear to be sneaking, based on their rate of pace."

Instantly on alert, Cody and Rex jammed their helmets on and switched on their HUDs, which gave them infrared vision, allowing them to essentially see through walls.

"Hostiles confirmed," Cody said via their helmet comms, seeing two human shaped reddish blurbs sidling along the front of the building on either side of the big doorway.

Tezza watched in alarm with what had to be a stunned fish look as the men turned into soldiers in front of her eyes. With silent movements they jog-stalked down the hallway towards the door, palming guns she hadn't even noticed they had, being way more intrigued with their faces than the paraphernalia on their belts.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, moving to follow them.

Cody waved an authoritative hand at her that even as a civilian she recognized as a 'stay put' signal.

Tezza ignored it, of course. At least, until Cody whirled around and grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into an empty stall and very clearly indicated she should stay put or else. She thought that was a rather good trick, considering his face was covered by a helmet and he didn't say a word.

Biting her lip with worry that the unknown soldiers had lost it and were about to attack the horses or something, she peeked around the door of the stall and watched the white clad men move in sync to the doorway and then in tandem leap forward and each turn in different directions with their guns raised.

As blue light emerged from the muzzles of the unfamiliar looking guns, Tezza heard someone call out, "Stop, Police!" That was immediately followed by the sound of gunshots and falling bodies as apparently the police shot at the same time that they spoke and then immediately succumbed to the blue light.

Heart somewhere up near her tonsils, Tezza tried to gulp it back down as she ran down the hallway towards the door filled with doom. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" she yelled at the soldiers, once again ignoring the fact that they didn't understand English. They turned to look at her, their emotionless visors giving her no indication of their thoughts. Tezza skidded through the doorway and looked both ways to see two blue uniformed policemen lying on the ground, gasping in dismay. "You can't just shoot whoever comes along!" she yelled at Cody, waving her hands helplessly. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're going to be in? I hope you didn't kill them. Please tell me you didn't kill them?"

Cody blinked at the outraged woman. "I'm getting the impression she's not pleased with our protection," Cody said via helmet comm to Rex.

"Ya think?" he scoffed back.

Tezza growled at the silent men who just stared at her via their helmets. Then she spun on the ball of her foot and went to check on the policeman to the right of the door. She knelt beside him and breathed a sigh of relief to see his chest rising and falling steadily and no visible wounds. She had no idea what the blue lights did, but maybe it was kind of like a stun from a phaser like on those old Star Trek shows. She hadn't known that anyone had invented that tech yet, but it didn't really surprise her, considering how many other inventions had been inspired by old movies and shows.

Tezza checked the other officer, and relieved at that one also appearing to just be sleeping, she stomped back to Cody, then crossed her arms and glared at him. "No." She poked at the gun still in his hand. "No gun. No shoot human. No shoot horse. No shoot cat. Just NO! Got it?"

Cody shot Rex a helmeted glare when his brother started cracking up over the comm, laughing with annoying chuckles, stunted inhales, and snorts. (All while his body was perfectly still, having mastered the art during a few hundred too many briefings with the Jedi Generals.)

Seeing the betrayed look on Tezza's face, the Commander of thousands of his own clone brothers holstered his blaster and reached up to pull his helmet off, prepared to apologize as best as he could to the irate woman. Apparently they shouldn't have shot the men who wore matching uniforms and were probably some sort of police force. But he hadn't known that, and they had been sneaking in a suspicious fashion. He supposed it was logical for some sort of authority to investigate their crash, but he hadn't expected such a fast response time and really hadn't been thinking that far ahead anyway, considering the chest high distraction currently tapping her foot at him like a pissed off mother scolding a child.

Her found her just as amusing as Rex did, but he'd never admit it. In fact, he found her so magnificent in her fury that he wanted to kiss the rage right out of her until it transformed into a much more pleasant form of passion.

Just before he actually budged his helmet off his head, his HUD caught sight of four objects flying in quickly from above the tree line. "We have more incoming," he said to Rex in a warning tone.

"Now what?" Tezza growled when she saw the soldiers tense again and their focus move from her to the sky. She spun around and squinted until the fast moving aircraft came closer, inspiring a resigned, "Fudge on a stick, that's exactly what we need right now," she muttered as the Canadian Air Force insignia became visible on the side of two of the aircraft and the NASA symbol on the other two.

She glared at the soldiers. "Just what on Earth have you two been up to, to inspire all of this?"

Cody just shook his head at her helplessly, not understanding the words, but the tone was clear enough.

Tezza sighed again and glanced at the aircraft that had landed in the big parking area of the stable, prepared to defend and protect the poor clueless (but obviously not helpless) twins as best as she could. She touched Cody's gun and once again said, "No," just to make sure he got the point, then gave him a 'stay here' gesture.

Then she sucked in a breath for courage and stepped towards the sudden herd of gun toting soldiers that came pouring out of the Air Force and NASA vehicles with her hands raised in the air.

* * *

_Mando'a words:_

_Shebs – butt, ass, etc._


End file.
